Chapter 89 eighty eight

There was a burst of discussion in the tent, and he insisted and said: "I think that the Tang army is very likely to invade the north after the Yellow River is frozen." Jieli nodded and said, "Well, you're right! Now the grassland is getting more and more droughty, and our army's horsepower has been greatly weakened. It's going up and down, which is worrying. In order to preserve our strength, from now on, we would rather starve the cattle and sheep to death." Keep as many horses as possible. In addition, all the ministries must go south separately, try to get close to the Great Wall for food, and preserve the pasture in the north as much as possible. Now, let’s discuss the route to the south—how, Tuli and Qibihe Are you still sick?"

Tuli and Qibiheli have always used various reasons to shirk and not come to the Yuzhang to participate in the discussion, and today is no exception, neither of them attended the meeting.Hearing Xie Li's question, a housekeeper got up and said, "Well, my master has been suffering from tuberculosis for half a month." Another housekeeper also said, "My master is so embarrassing." Jieli knew in his heart that these two people were guarding against him, so he said calmly, "Oh, you can bring me some good medicine to see them later, so that they can recuperate well." A map was spread out in front of him, arranging the route for each department to go south to eat.As usual, he placed Tuli at the southernmost position, and ordered him to go south immediately to a place thirty miles north of Mayi. He said that there was Hun River flowing there, the water and grass were luxuriant, and there were many people in the Tuli tribe. A good pasture.The words were beautiful, but he was thinking in his heart that it would be best for the Tang army in Mayi to fight Tuli first, and then the Tang army in Yunzhong would come to reinforce him, so as to defeat the old fox in one go.

Tuli didn't seem to have any objection to this arrangement, and three days later he left the camp and went south. Jieli didn't know that when he was plotting against Tuli, Tuli was also plotting against him. Yi Nan's confidant sent him news, Li Shimin He has already made a secret tour to the north, and he will meet with him near Yunzhong in the near future. Ma Yi is very close to Yunzhong, and it is exactly what Xieli wants for his men to go south. In order to cover people's eyes and ears, Li Shimin's northern tour was not made public. The emperor's car, accompanied by Fang Xuanling, left the east gate of Chang'an with great fanfare under the banner of visiting Luoyang, the eastern capital, and drove towards Tongguan.In fact, the emperor himself had already left Chang'an and quietly headed north.Because the matter is very important, if the secret is leaked, not only will the alliance fail, but Tuli and others may be put in danger. In order to hide the truth, Li Shimin and his party pretended to be businessmen. Changsun Wuji secretly met with Dou, the largest businessman in Chang'an. , Ask him to help point out a business path to ensure nothing goes wrong.

Dou Ming knew that the journey was dangerous, but he dared not refuse.To lead the way for the emperor, it stands to reason that he should go in person, but he is old and his legs and feet are inconvenient, so he had to let his adopted son Mu Yikuan accompany him.The business of the Dou family was very big, and Mu Yikuan led them all the way. This unusual caravan traveled northward without any major twists and turns, and arrived outside the city of Mayi. Mayi City is not big and the population is not large. Because it is a border town, Hu Qi often invades, so the gate of the city is heavily guarded, and there are many soldiers of the Tang army standing on the tower.Mu Yikuan and others were about to enter the city after receiving the interrogation. A group of cavalry from the Tang Army galloped from a small hill to the gate of the city. The frontier soldiers fought all the year round. With the sound of the wind, Mu Yikuan hurriedly called the convoy to step aside and let them go first.There were more than one hundred cavalrymen in this team, some of them were hanged and covered in blood, and two horses were carrying two tied barbarian men. It was clear that a battle had just been fought.

Someone upstairs shouted: "General Dugu, you really have it, and I took two more!" A young and handsome junior in the team raised his head and replied: "Yi Zhi, it's a pity that you missed this battle. You guys, all of them are good at martial arts, surrounded by more than a hundred of us, they fought to the death, we killed eleven, and it was very easy to take these two." The curtain of a carriage was raised, revealing the eldest grandson Wuji's eyes looked up and down at the two speakers. He seemed to be very familiar with the two faces, but he couldn't remember who they were for a while.

Changsun Wuji was right, he really knew both of them.The one who led the cavalry was Dugu Mou. What Li Shimin said in the prison that day made this wicked young man heartbroken. He came to Mayi with his mother on his back, and joined his father's old department, Yuan Zhongwen, hoping to win the battle with his military achievements. shame.And the beneficiary on the tower is Fang Xuanling's eldest son Fang Yizhi, who came here a year earlier than Dugumou, but Fang Xuanling doesn't like to make publicity, he has never told anyone about this.At that time, the sons of Xunqi in the capital liked to be the imperial guards, riding tall horses all day long, majestic and majestic. Few people from families like Fang Yizhi and Dugu Mou came to the border, so the two naturally became like-minded. bosom friend.

Dugu Mou took the two captives to Yuan Zhongwen's tent in Mayi, and reported to Yuan Zhongwen what he had learned from his trip to investigate the military situation - the troops of Ashina's second Khan Tuli arrived suddenly this morning. Thirty miles north of the Hun River, camped, and not far to the east, Zhishi Sili led 50,000 horses and marched south.Yuan Zhongwen was taken aback when he heard that, so many people came all at once, something is wrong with this situation!He looked at the two captives, and one of them seemed to be a prince!Then he asked, "Who are you?" The man in princely attire was about to speak, when another man with rat whiskers rushed to say: "We are from the Huerhan tribe, and this is Geshuta, the son of the chieftain of the Huerhan tribe."

Yuan Zhongwen said a little strangely: "The Hu'er Khan tribe is close to Longxi, why did you come to the east here?" The man with the mouse whiskers replied: "We are here to see relatives." The military situation is urgent, Yuan Zhong Wen didn't have time to interrogate them any further, so he ordered the two of them to be detained for safekeeping, and sent someone to quickly report the military information that Dugu Mou had discovered to the camp of Lieutenant Yun Chi Jingde, and at the same time began to mobilize the defenders in the city to prepare for the battle.

No one thought that these two captives actually had a lot of origins. The one who wore the prince's costume was Xieli's eldest son Shiluodie, and the one who was captured at the same time was his bodyguard Hetai.The failed marriage snatching made Shi Luodie suffer from lovesickness, and the beautiful figure of Ashinayun was swaying in front of his eyes all day long. This time, Jieli ordered the Tuli tribe to go south to Mayi. After hearing the news, Shi Luodie couldn't help but Missing Ashinayun, he led Hetai and a dozen people to look for her without his father's back. He didn't want to meet Tang army scouts led by Dugumou on the bank of the Hun River. They were outnumbered and caught.

Tang Jun's guards were not very strict. Hetai broke the ropes that bound him, pushed open a window, and jumped out. He came to the door of the firewood room where Shi Luodie was imprisoned, and was about to push the door open when someone suddenly shouted. "Come on, the prisoner has escaped!" Hetai had no choice but to whisper inside: "Your Highness, take care, I will report back first, and I will rescue you!" After finishing speaking, he ran away.Across a wall, there is a vegetable field. An old man was planting vegetables with a hoe. He grabbed the hoe and beat the old man to death. Ku fled to the north bank of the Hun River, found Zhishi Sili's camp, and reported the matter to him.Zhishi Sili was shocked, went to see Xieli in person, and reported the news to him.Xieli ordered not to reveal this secret to anyone, and then mobilized a large army to attack Mayi from three sides.

At night, Ma Yi was suddenly surrounded by tens of thousands of horsemen. Yuan Zhongwen was awakened from his dream. He climbed up to the city gate and looked out. He saw countless torches shaking in the four fields, which had never happened before.On the one hand, he sent Dugu Mou to the city to recruit Ding Zhuang, Xiangyong, to defend the city, and on the other hand, he sent someone to go to General Yuchi Jingde's emergency at night, asking him to bring troops to help. Dugu Mou immediately led a small group of soldiers to recruit Ding Zhuang along the street. He beat a gong and shouted loudly: "Listen, every household, Hu Kou is coming, the eunuch has an order, all Ding Zhuang go to the city to defend!" At the sound of the gong, strong men came out of their homes and walked towards the city with weapons. They lived in the outskirts and were used to such things for a long time.When Dugu Mou came to an inn, he saw a few strong men with knives on their backs standing at the door, and he shouted: "Hey, do you hear that, Ding Zhuang will go to the city to guard!" The strong men ignored him, and Dugu plotted the fire, and yelled, "Come on, take them to the top of the city!" The soldiers went up and stretched out their hands to grab the strong men, who showed resistance , actually wanted to reach out and draw the knife.At this time, an old man in common clothes appeared behind those men, Dugu Mou's expression changed, he recognized at a glance that it was Changsun Wuji, and hurriedly ordered to the soldiers: "Slow down!" Then he approached Changsun Wuji Step by step, he said, "I'm Dugu Mou, Da—" Changsun Wuji hastily interrupted him and said, "Oh, it's you, I almost didn't recognize it, yes, I am Da Feng, a leather goods seller in Chang'an, how is it? The white fox that I sent to the house last year is still good. Dugu Mou understood, the other party obviously didn't want to reveal his identity, he hurriedly followed his words and said: "I made a winter hat, and it's very warm to wear. By the way, why are you here." Changsun Wuji said: "It's a long story, come with me." Dugu Mou left the team of soldiers behind, then followed Changsun Wuji into the inn, walked through the hall and climbed the stairs, and came to a guest room. He opened a door and said, "Go in." Dugu Mou carefully pushed open the door, stepped in with one leg, glanced in, and was stunned for a moment—it turned out that Emperor Li Shimin was sitting inside in casual clothes.